Category: Tara

The last two months have taught me so much about myself and the financial industry. I have gained many useful skills that I can take away for my future profession. In my opinion, I think I did very well as an intern for my companies. Being in a completely new environment with different norms, culture, and rules takes a toll on everyone. Even with those challenges, I was able to step up to the plate and complete the projects given to me. This experience also showed me the areas where I need to grow. Realizing these weaknesses is valuable for future growth. My analytical skills need sharpening if I desire to work in the finance fields. I found that at times I was not as quick at seeing trends. If I aim to sharpen my skills, I will surely become even more valuable to whatever company I end up working for.

Working and living in Vietnam for two months will not only look good on my resume and make it stand out among competitors, it shows my ability to adapt to new environments. Working in a Vietnamese office taught me a lot about team work and collaboration. At times I had to think individually and work through problems myself because my coworkers could not understand me, but that boosted my confidence in my skills. Working in living abroad is impressive in any field. It shows employers that I am openminded and don’t mind change. Choosing Vietnam as my destination is another impressive point in itself because it is not a fully developed country.

After my two months here, I realized that I need to be more confident in myself. I was unsure about signing up for a two-month study abroad internship with the fear that I would miss home too much. While I did miss home, I did not once regret coming here. Vietnam is an amazing country and a place that everyone should experience at least once. I had never had an inkling of interest to go to Asia before, but now I want to come back as soon as I can and explore other countries on this amazing continent. I am going to miss the vibrant personality of this country, the amazing food, and the kind people so very much. I am so thankful that I took the leap to come here and I know this will not be the last time I see Vietnam. Tam biet for now Vietnam.

My internships have given me many headaches. There have been many times when I had no idea what I was doing. If I’m honest, most of the time I was just winging it. After struggling with a project for the last two weeks, not knowing what was going on or why my numbers were adding up, the balance sheet I was working on finally balanced. For those who have been lucky enough to have never had to work with financial statements, balancing the accounts feels like winning first place in a marathon. If you mess up one number, then everything is messed up. For me, this process was even harder because all of the information I needed was only in Vietnamese. I had a translator, but it took me forever to realize where I was going wrong and what numbers meant what. When I finally balanced, I made the rest of the project a breeze. The thing about accounting and finance is that you have to be meticulous with every number and calculation. Throughout my internships I started double and triple checking everything I did. I have always been very meticulous, but I have become even more so after all of my mistakes.

On the weekends, I have been able to travel all around Vietnam. This last weekend, I visited Da La, a city located around five hours from Ho Chi Minh City. During my time there, I visited a flower farm. This farm grew the prettiest flowers I have ever seen. As I was admiring the flowers, one of. The workers handed me a flower to take with me. It was so lovely. I carried the flower around for the rest of the tour until we came to our stop at a village of minority people. This village was like going back into time. They had the bare minimum, no doors, no air conditioning and no indoor plumbing. Even though they were living in poverty, the people were so nice. I was able to sit down and talk to them about their lives and tell them about my adventures in Vietnam. When it was time to leave, I decided to hand my flower off to one of the little girls living in the village. Her eyes lit up so much when I gave it to here and she smiled so big. Such a little gift brought her so much joy. While we were driving away, I could see her dancing around the village with the flower and showing it off to her family. This experience made me realize just how lucky I am. I have been given this opportunity to travel around the world and see amazing sites, yet I still have the urge to complain from time to time. Coming back home, I am going to try and be more grateful for what I have.

Throughout my experience in HCMC, I have learned a lot about the finance industry. I was given the opportunity to work for two different companies in the same industry, but both showed me a different side. The finance industry is huge and there are so many opportunities for employment. The first company I worked for showed me an inside view on the venture capital side. Venture capital works with new and upcoming businesses. This contrasts with the second company I worked for where I concentrated on equity research for large and established companies.

Mirae Assets is a well-established company with great brand recognition and reputation. Mirae Asset offers extensive product offerings, allowing them to penetrate a variety of customer segments in the financial services industry. The business model of Mirae Asset could be easily imitated by competitors which poses a weakness. Rising disposable income and lower inflation rates in Vietnam create opportunities in new segments and increase consumption of Mirae Asset’s products and services. The changing political environment poses a potential threat for Mirae Asset. The US-China trade war, Brexit, and the overall instability in the middle east has the ability to affect business locally and internationally.

One of the most amazing things about Vietnam is how kind the people are. I am a very skeptical person and always question everything. So, when my friends and I were invited to an exclusive pent house party on a random night, I was definitely paranoid that something was going to go wrong and concluded it sounded too good to be true. My friends tried to comfort me by telling me this was a normal occurrence in Asia. I couldn’t see why anyone would want to host a bunch of American strangers, but I attended regardless of my skepticism. We showed up to the apartment and rode up to the 32^nd floor pent house. We were welcomed by the smell of home cooking and a tiny Vietnamese woman with the biggest smile. She welcomed us into her home and introduced herself and her husband. It was not too good to be true. They own an English school in Ho Chi Minh city and invite people to their home to network and market their school. They had more money than they knew what to do with, so they decided to throw dinner parties for foreigners.  She fed us homemade soup and fresh fruits. We sang karaoke and learned all about the school. It was not the way I was expecting the night to come to, but it was so enjoyable being surrounded by such warm and welcoming people. I felt bad for ever questioning the invite. Mrs. Ha offered to teach us cooking lessons and to show us around HCMC. The Ha’s generosity and desire to host strangers was like nothing I had ever seen.

The most challenging aspects of my internship so far has been the language barrier. While my coworkers and supervisors all speak English very well as a research intern I must find article and information on companies and industries. Finding information in English is next to impossible. I have Google translate in my chrome account so I can translate, but a lot of my information comes from published PDFs published in Vietnamese. I have read and looked at so many articles, I am starting to recognize certain Vietnamese words and phrases.

One of the best features of my internship is surprisingly not the free espresso anytime I want (it is still certainly a perk), but the access to Mirae’s Bloomberg terminal. The Bloomberg terminal is an amazing piece of technology that practically puts the whole financial industry into my fingertips. The projects I am working on require a lot of specific industry and company data which would be timely and nearly impossible to access without the terminal. It is also just fun to play around with and explore all of its amazing features. Its analysis tools are very helpful on the daily for me and make my day go by so much easier. There is a Bloomberg terminal at school, and I am definitely going to get my hands on it when I get back.

I have eaten some very interesting food while in HCMC. Some of it I liked and some of it I had to throw away after one bite. Of all the food I have eaten in HCMC, bahn mis take the cake. There is never a time I don’t want banh mi. I could eat one for breakfast with egg on it or lunch with pork and peppers. There is something so satisfying about the crunchy baguette and the spicy peppers. I probably eat bahn mi at least 4 times a week. Not only is bahn mi delicious, it is also very cheap. The most I have ever paid was around 60,000 Dong ($2.60). I am definitely going to try to replicate them at home or else I will have withdrawals.

A lot has changed since my last journal entry. CRCC Asia became concerned that the remote nature of my previous internship might not give me the experience I desired while being in Vietnam. I agreed with them because I came all the way across the world to really be immersed into not only the culture of the country, but of the business world too. CRCC got me an interview with a wealth management firm with a very good reputation. After the interview, I started right away. Mirae Assets if the new company I am working for. I am working on similar projects as at IDG, but these are more in depth and I have a team of employees to help me on them as needed. I am expected to finish my financial report on a real estate company. In this report, I must build multipole models and disclose information about the successes and risks of investing in the company. This is an amazing opportunity because I am working directly with an equity research analyst and he is teaching me tips and tricks along the way. The report I am building is one that they are going to post publicly, and it will be listed online. These reports are quite extensive, so having a helping hand is great for them. In my new office, there are around 12 other employees. There is one other intern working with me and Rushi from the London School of Economics. Of the employees, most of them speak impeccable English and are kind enough to help with anything we need.

I was enjoying the worked assigned to me through IDG and did not want to leave the company before the end of the summer. I spoke to both companies and they are allowing me to work for both of them for the remainder of the summer. I communicate with my supervisor the same as always, through skype. I am currently working on an investor pitch for the firm’s new fund. This pitch will be given to prospective investors in the next month.  It is quite stressful having two different projects, with two different companies going on at once. As stressful as it is, it is helping me with my time management skills.

As my time dwindles down in Ho Chi Minh City, I have some to realize that I need to go with the flow here. Everything in HCMC moves at its own speed. I am a very impatient person but living here has taught me to be more patient than ever. It takes twice the time to cross the street here than anywhere else but rushing across will only get me killed. The traffic here is horrendous, but I have learned to use the long ride wisely and call family members to catch up. I am becoming increasingly more homesick as the days go by, but I will use my time here as a lesson that not everything has to be rushed.

My projects for the next few weeks that we have left include working on a new PPM for a new fund. A PPM stands for a Private Placement Memorandum. This is a document presented to potential investors. The money granted through a PPM is used to invest in new companies. Currently, IDG is finishing up its second fund and is preparing for its third fund. I am creating and analyzing the new PPM for IDG fund three. Since the last fund was proposed in 2013, a lot of information has changed and IDG wants to focus on new sectors. The main sector I am researching, and proposing is TMT. TMT is technology, media and telecommunications. I will be researching an overview of the sector as a whole to convince and show prospective investors what we would use the find for. Along with TMT, I will be focusing on online ecommerce, retail consumer, healthcare, education, logistics, Greentech, Agri-tech, energy, and Fintech. This PPM is vital for the growth of IDG. The PPM is the only way that IDG will be able to invest in the future. The new fund they are wishing to acquire is worth around $150 million USD. Within the PPM I will analyze the sector markets for trends and show tangible evidence of why investors should give money.

Since I have not met my supervisor in person, it is hard to explain our dynamic. My supervisor is very easy to work with and always gives explanations when asked. he is a very intelligent man and since working with him I have already learned so much. If I even have the tiniest and dumbest questions, he will answer them fully without an inkling of distaste. I really appreciate his willingness to teach me about the subjects we are working on so I can get the most out of this experience. One of the most interesting and probably most heartbreaking things that I have learned about working and living in HCMC is the inequality between women and men. This inequality is not only in the workplace but also in day to day life. I am the only female in my office. I think that this is a common trend in the finance field, so that did not put me off too much. However, there are not very many women working in our building as a whole. One of the things that brought the sexism to my awareness was the ads throughout the building my office is located in. the ads are for a Vietnamese bank. In all of the pictures, the woman is a secretary or a mother to the banking husband. This was shocking because in the united states I know they would not only express women as less than men. We learned in class that in the business world, men are at the top and that has definitely become apparent. On a positive note, we also learned about the rising number of female CEOs in the coming years.

My supervisor, Mr. Fred Ng, has already taught me so much about the private equity sector. Mr. Fred is the manager of the research department for IDG Ventures. Mr. Fred is located in the Singapore office. Fred’s job is to facilitate and assign research for new investment areas. Fred looks for trends in certain sectors to see if they are worth investing in. Fred has been working on new investments in the real estate sector. My main department is research with an emphasis on real estate.

My internship is definitely unique compared to others in Ho Chi Minh. I am able to work on fascinating projects in the real estate sector. I just finished up a presentation that was given to Chinese investors. It focused on new and upcoming real estate markets throughout Vietnam. Most investors are aware of the potential in the bigger cities of Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi. My presentation focused on the smaller, less known cities along the coast of Vietnam. As I mentioned last week, my office is very small. There is only one other employee in the office with my co-intern Rushi. Rushi and I try and collaborate our project together so we can get the most out of our internships.

Ho Chi Minh City has turned out to be an amazing city to be living in this summer. Everything here is so vibrant and full of life. There are so many unique people here and all of them are so kind and welcoming. One of my favorite experiences so far so been when I went to a coffee shop to plan my weekend trips. The cashier was a sweet Vietnamese boy who had studied abroad in the United States. We started talking about his experiences in America and then about the trips me and my roommate were hoping to do. He sat down with us and helped us plan out the best places to go and gave us amazing recommendations. My roommate and I now exclusively go to that coffee shop and have made an amazing local friend. It is so nice to meet such cool people in this city and to be able to share our experiences. 

Today is the end of my first week working as an intern at IDG Ventures Vietnam. IDG Ventures Vietnam is a venture capital fund. Venture capital is a type of private equity that funds new and emerging business that are seen to have high growth potential or have demonstrated great growth. I am working as a research analyst intern. In this role I will be supporting the research team in finding and presenting new and upcoming markets for investment. My sector of focus is real estate.

The first days of work was interesting to say the least. We were picked up at 8 am and had to drop off nine other people before I was dropped off. Luckily, I am working with someone else from the UF in Vietnam Program. Rushi and I are working at the Centec Tower. It is a huge building that was recently built so there is plenty of air conditioning and space. The top of the building has a fantastic rooftop bar and restaurant. The views from up there are amazing. There were two other students working in the same building, Richard and Cole. It turned out that we were all working in the same office surprisingly. The office is small, but financial offices don’t need too much razzle-dazzle. It was shared my IDG Ventures Vietnam and Impact Vietnam, an investment banking firm. We were welcomed by the supervisor of Impact Vietnam, Cole and Richard’s host company. Rushi and I were quite confused but found out that IDG’s main office is in Hanoi. His supervisor is based in Hanoi and mine is based in Singapore. Our main method of communication would be through skype, which was fine by me. I contacted my supervisor and he set up a call for us. He welcomed me to the company and gave me my first few projects.

IDG is a very spread out company, so the hours are quite flexible. Fred, my supervisor, allows me to work from home and anywhere I desire. Because most of my work is research based, all I really need is my laptop and some WIFI. He still recommended coming in a few days a week in order to bounce ideas off others. In the office, there is normally only one IDG employee. Unfortunately, we have not been able to meet due to some unforeseen circumstances on his side. Hopefully we can meet him in the coming weeks.

Everyday Rushi, Cole, Richard, and I would go out and get lunch on our break. It was so nice to have other students with me. One of the days we were invited by the supervisor of Impact to go to lunch. It was so nice of him to sort of adopt us as his own. I am very excited to see where this internship takes me and learn all kinds of new things. My first week has been positive and I cannot wait to get more projects.

Xin chào from Vietnam! We have been in Vietnam for a little over a week now and I still have to pinch myself to see if this is a dream. My first experience in Asia has been overwhelming to say the least. If New York is the city that never sleeps, then Ho Chi Minh is the city that doesn’t know what sleep is. My first impression of Vietnam came after an exhausting flight and I found myself overwhelmed by all of the different smells, sounds, and sights on the ride to my apartment. After a night of restful sleep and a tour around the city, I settled into my new home. While exploring I could tell that though everything seemed to be in constant motion they still aligned perfectly. Driving through intersections seemed foreign to me while watching videos back in the United States, but when it came time for me to see it in person it happened naturally and effortlessly. It was crazy that such chaos could be almost organized in a way. From the very first day, I knew there was a lot to learn and it just kept getting better from there.

The most culturally informative experience I have had so far has to be the trip we took to the Mekong Delta. While in this region, we visited a few small villages and a floating market. It is apparent to me since arriving in Vietnam that the Vietnamese are very hard working. Our tour guide explained how the market is open every day from four in the morning to ten at night. This market is an important part of the Vietnamese culture because it is where many transactions between vendors happen. On the drive out to the Mekong delta, we passed countless rice Farming is the lifeline of Vietnam and being able to see this the process of farming, from the fields to the fruits and goods being sold at the market, was amazing. While in the Mekong, we were also able to learn how rice paper and rice noodles were manufactured. It was long and grueling work for those who made it, and I am so honored that they allowed us to come in and appreciate the hard work they put in. Being able to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city allowed us to appreciate the hard work that goes into fueling the economy of Vietnam.

One of the things that perplexed me the most was the fact that those from the north and those from the south had very different attitudes and beliefs. It is interesting to view that here because trends like this show up in many countries such as in the US. I am interested to visit north Vietnam and see how it compares to the south. I am curious to know if the dynamic between Vietnam’s north and south is similar to that of the United States. I am excited to travel throughout this amazing country and learn about its geographical and political differences from locals and guides. Another subject I would like to learn about during my travels is how the food in Vietnam differs from food in other Asian countries. I worked in a Thai restaurant growing up, so I am familiar with Thai food. I want to compare and contrast Vietnamese food to Thai food and find what the differences in taste are. Catch me traveling as much as I can in the next two months so I can learn as much as possible.

UF in Vietnam is going to be my first experience in Asian culture. I am expecting a great culture shock but am excited to dive right into the amazing and vibrant life of Vietnam. During the last week, I was introduced to the different aspects of Vietnam. As a class, we explored different topics ranging from politics to geography. I knew nothing about Vietnamese or even Southeastern culture before this week and learned some interesting and eye-opening information.

 One of the particularly interesting facts about Vietnamese culture is that the women are the heads of households. Vietnam is a matriarch society. The women not only run the household and care for the children, but they also handle all the money and finances. It seems that most cultures around the world are mainly patriarchal, with the father being the head. Not only are women in charge of households, but Vietnam also has a high rate of women professionals. Learning that women are respected in Vietnamese culture was refreshing, especially as I am a young professional woman myself. In some cultures, women are sometimes looked down upon and thought of as less or not given as much work or promotions. I am excited to work in Vietnam because I know I will be treated equally on the basis of my sex.

Vietnam will definitely be different from the United States. The starkest difference that I will have to face every day, is their lack of law enforcement, particularly in traffic law. One of the first videos we watched in class was a “how-to cross the street in Vietnam”. Crossing the street seems like a very mundane task, but in Saigon, it is a risky venture. In Vietnam, the laws are not always enforced very strictly. In effect, there are no traffic lights and if there are, people do not abide by them. The lack of traffic lights makes crossing the street seemingly impossible. Hundreds of bikes and cars zoom through the streets and pedestrians are expected to slowly and surely meander through the traffic to the other side. This poses a slight hiccup in my travels for I might be too scared to cross the streets at times. Perhaps I will get caught on one side and need to cross to get to work. Hopefully, by the end of my time in Vietnam, I will be able to cross the street confidently and in less than 10 minutes.  Even though I will be all the way around the world, I know that not everything will be different. The sounds of the scooters whirling will remind me of home in Gainesville at UF. The US has a huge obsession with coffee and the Vietnamese love their coffee as well, if not more. In fact, they are one of the top coffee exporters in the world. The most reassuring aspect of Vietnam that will make the world feel just a bit smaller is the similarity between the US and Vietnam’s emphasis on education. Both the United State and Vietnam prioritize education above almost everything. In Vietnam, it will be nice to see all the school children headed to school just as they would at home. Being educated is very important to both cultures and it makes me happy knowing that I am making both cultures proud by pursuing a degree and expanding my horizons by studying abroad.